you are clearly not an artist. production, no matter the media, takes time. and lots of it to be good. a good movie isnt filmed in an afternoon. a good painting or sculpture has a handful of iterations, each costing money in time and materials. with good art you are also paying for practice. your favorite band did not wake up one day and produce a hit album. they spent years practicing and writing songs.

my favorite explanation for why things cost they way they do comes from the carpenter who fixed the sqeaky floor that the homeowner couldnt, no matter how hard he tried:

cost of nail: $.10knowing where to place the nail: $59.90

total due: $60.00

production takes time and money. the internet is not the only medium for art. if it really is one in the first place.

i cant stand how ignorant people are when they try to justify getting something for nothing. you probably expect to get paid for flipping burgers, show some respect and pay someone who creates a work of art you enjoy, no matter how 'easy' and 'free' it is to reproduce.

finally, the relevant clause for your review:"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; "

The worst thing we did under the Bush years is make it so that a full 40% of the population no longer has any stake in government spending. That's way too big of a chunk of population to have expecting that someone else will pay for their free stuff.

wait, i thought he raised taxes on the poor and reduced them on the wealthy. so is it that 40% of the highest earners no longer pay taxes? actually, the bottom 40% of earners do have a stake in government spending. it is called all of their 'free stuff' besides, isnt it a sign of a developed nation to help those less fortunate? what better way than to eliminate income taxes? now, if only we can make it so that 40% doesnt have to pay social security and medicare.

personally, i think it is a sick country that (before deduction, credits etc) skims 25.3% off the income of the lowest earners and 40.3% off of the average households income. look up payroll taxes(both employee and employer contribution), tax brackets and household income.

i know a guy who used to be a sniper and he said that he had to be extremely careful with communications devices for fear he could give up his position in the field. essentially the enemy could conceivably monitor for communications and determine general locations.

granted local police and the military are different. yet, couldnt a troublemaker get a hold of this information and use it to their advantage?

Posted
by
timothyon Thursday April 09, 2009 @06:31PM
from the hence-the-local-steam-baths dept.

miller60 writes "As data centers get larger, they are getting thirstier as well. A large server farm can use up to 360,000 gallons of water a day in its cooling systems, a trend that has data center operators looking at ways to reduce their water use and impact on local water utilities. Google says two of its data centers now are "water self-sufficient." The company has built a water treatment plant at its new facility in Belgium, allowing the data center to rely on water from a nearby industrial canal. Microsoft chose San Antonio for a huge data center so it could use the local utility's recycled water ('gray water') service for the 8 million gallons it will use each month."

Posted
by
timothyon Thursday April 09, 2009 @06:01PM
from the topping-playlists-everywhere dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Download this: an MP3 file of the hearing in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, over whether a lower court proceeding in an RIAA case can be made available online, is now available online. The irony of course is palpable, not only because a court which freely makes its proceedings available across the internet is being asked by the RIAA, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, to prevent the district court from making similar proceedings available across the internet, but also because the end product is an MP3 file which can be freely downloaded, shared by email, shared through p2p file sharing, and even 'remixed.' The legal arguments focused on relatively narrow issues: the interpretation of a rule enacted in the District Court of Massachusetts, and the legal effect of a resolution by the First Circuit Judicial Council, rather than on broader First Amendment grounds."

from what i understand the government is buying up troubled assets (TARP) from banks and whatnot to get them off the banks books. in return the government gets equity warrants which allows the government to purchase non-voting shares (which probably may or may not be preferred) in the bank from which it bought the troubled assets.

this really all goes back to how our finance system works. normally a bank has 'x' dollars to lend out. once they lend out the 'x' they package up those loans and sell them to someone else. now the bank has more money to loan out. problem is, no one wanted to by debt anymore since many people have been defaulting on those loans.